Naddred – Sluagh (Review)

Naddred play classic black metal, influenced by the second wave and with enough spite and malice for the listener to feel it coming off the tracks in sickly, corrupt waves.

The songs, of which there are four that collectively last just over 20 minutes in total, are very enjoyable examples of the genre and it’s clear that the band know what they’re doing with the style.

Don’t let what I’ve written so far give you the impression of a black metal-by-numbers type of release though. Sluagh may stick closely to the original source material, but it’s not without its own personality or charm. There’s more than enough nuance and interest here to warrant Naddred’s existence, and as an initial ritual Sluagh fulfils its dark promise nicely.

I particularly enjoy the guitars on this release and I like how they’re played. Alongside the typically blackened distortion we get little flashes of grim colour that add a lot to the feel of the songs.

The production is pretty decent, especially for what’s apparently a demo recording. Everything has the appropriate blackened sheen and level of necrogrimdark going on, and overall Sluagh sounds as you would want this kind of release to sound; not too raw, but certainly not polished either.

A very enjoyable debut from a band I’ll be keeping an eye on. Let’s hope their next foul incantation will be just as memorable as this one.